Short Trips: Scattered Memories
by Xi Theta
Summary: 3 short excerpts from an AU Whoniverse Altered Doomsday . The Doctor and Rose share good times and bad in equal measure.
1. Time's Champion

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I profit nothing.

A/N: The Angsty Plot Bunny attacks… R/R please!

**Time's Champion**

Night was falling over the old stone bridge. The earlier rain still lingered on the worn blocks as the lights were lit in the toll house at one end and servants returned to their kitchens to prepare to serve dinner. All was quiet. A single carriage clattered unceremoniously across before disappearing into a courtyard.

The clouds had all but dissipated and the moon was shining when a couple emerged from a side street. The lady, a young, slim blonde, wore a very fashionably cut midnight blue dress and her hair was held high by a dozen pearl-ended pins, which matched the cluster around her neck. Her escort was a tall man, dressed casually in what closely resembled a brown suit, albeit devoid of tails and a hat. Instead he sported a long brown coat rarely seen in the city. A true bohemian in the heart of old Bohemia. They wandered out over the bridge and stopped between two of the many statues that stood along its length. They moved to look out over the quiet river flowing onwards.

oOo

"There you are, Rose. Europe…ish, and not too far away time wise either." The gentleman seemed ever so slightly proud of himself. "As requested."

"Okay then, Doctor," the lady, Rose, replied. "Where… and when, are we?"

"Charles Bridge, Prague. About one century back from your present. 1907 to be precise."

"And no visitors?" she questioned, turning her face up towards his.

The Doctor rested his forehead on hers.

"Well. Only us." This last was so quiet that she could hardly hear it. "And if you follow me, I'll show you something truly extraordinary."

oOo

Taking her hand, they strolled over the remainder of the bridge, under the tall tollhouse and left both behind as they moved through the narrow streets.

Rose gazed at the towering buildings around them as they walked, noticing with interest that each door had a picture exquisitely carved on the stone above.

Curious, she asked the Doctor what they meant.

"Well, in this day and age only the wealthy can read and write, let alone count, so house numbers are pretty much useless. There is a long tradition of symbols in Europe". They stopped outside a building marked with three violins. "That means that the first occupants were either three violinists or a violin maker. Or both. And look…" he pointed across the street "a lion rampant. That's either a noble family, brave soldier, or some link to the crown."

"Thanks I…" Rose stopped short as they rounded the corner into the square, and saw exactly what the Doctor had been so excited about.

oOo

A huge clock, at least three or four metres across. But not just any clock, with twelve numbers and two hands. This had twenty-four roman numerals and another twenty-four on a ring around the outside, all delicately clad in gold. It had another ring, gold leafed, about half the size and showing the zodiacal symbols. One hand was gold, with a pointing finger and a sun half-way down. The other was dark, only reaching level with the sun on the first. A half silvered sphere lay at the end of it, mirroring the moon above.

"It's so beautiful!" Rose breathed, awestruck.

"It's also so powerful" the Doctor said, not taking his eyes off the almost imperceptibly moving gold hand. "You know I was telling you the other day… about the Key to Time? That's one of the segments…I thought you might like to see it. It's also one of the few things that still remind me…"

He trailed off as his eyes started to well with tears.

"When I brought it here to hide it, I had hoped it would become something more inconspicuous, but it saw into my mind and became this. A scale replica of the Clock of Time, reconfigured for Earth."

"I thought all clocks told the time…" Rose looked at him as they sat down in one of the covered walkways. "Oh, Doctor! Why are you crying?" She held his hand tightly. "What's wrong?"

oOo

"The Clock of Time" he replied, haltingly, "was the clock that stood at the very centre of the Academy, back on Gallifrey, on the front of the temporality and sidereal science college. It was enormous, twice the size of this one. It had dials for every planet in the Kasterborous system and hands for both suns and each of the moons.

"On the original, where you see those words there" he pointed "Aurora ortus occasus crepusculum, it said 'Whoso ever hears the chimes, rejoice, for the champion of time is chosen once again.' in the old script.

"Graduation was held in the Great Quad, the garden that it faced onto. The degree students had finished and my friends and I had completed PhDs and were up next. I was the last one up for my certificate. But as I accepted it and received my regenerations from the council member in attendance the bells began to ring. I turned with the rest to see what happening and the world went out, pitch black. I woke up two weeks later in the infirmary with Aureliarientrelundar, Nurse Aurelia, watching me from a chair by the window."

"Did you find out what happened?" Rose's mind was reeling.

"According to Koschei – my room-mate – almost exactly the same thing as what happened to you, when you looked into the heart of the TARDIS.

"Golden light swirled out from the dials and into me. My eyes shone gold as yours did. Then it left and I collapsed. Koschei and my other friend - Drax - carried me to the infirmary.

"As soon as I recovered I returned to my dorm room and packed. Everyone else who was leaving that year had gone already, but I found Koschei in the canteen. He wanted to do an MA. He told me what happened while I ate and he accompanied me to the gates. That was seven hundred years ago. I was all right for a while, but by the time I was 500 I needed to get out. I couldn't go out in the street sometimes because of the staring and whispering. I was on the verge of insanity when I borrowed the TARDIS and left. Four hundred years and eight regenerations later I met you."

The Doctor, in floods of tears now, released Rose's hand. She hugged him tightly and he buried his face in her hair.

"And you are the only person that knows." He whispered through his tears. "Because it's all gone. The Clock, the Academy, the City, everything…"

"Shh Doctor… Don't cry. I'm here now." Rose stood, gave him a handkerchief and took his hand again. "Let's go back to the TARDIS before we freeze, Doctor."

oOo

Indeed, it was colder now, and the wind had started to blow through the narrow streets. Together they walked quietly back to the TARDIS, in a lonely backstreet behind a coal hatch.

oOo

Once inside, Rose made her excuses and went to change, and the Doctor stood alone in the TARDIS control room. He quietly started crying again as they left Prague for places new. He thought about what he'd told her. It wasn't the whole story. When the vortex had entered him back at the Academy, his world hadn't just gone black. He had seen the planet's future: overrun by Daleks and destroyed. His room-mate's gradual transition from good to evil, and the true reason why he had to leave.

Two children, one dark, one fair-haired, playing in a TARDIS crèche, with a young, pretty human female watching them. One who had been touched by the vortex.

He had never answered when aliens asked why he loved Earth so much. The answer was private.

"I was waiting for her" he said to himself as he left the control room.

Moments later, a humming filled the room.

"I, know…"

--

There you have it… Time's Champion.

R/R please. There are two more vignettes/oneshots in a kind of loose arc in the pipeline. They won't **all** be angsty I promise.


	2. Happiness

Rose's watch alarm beeped from under her layers of clothing: five o'clock

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I profit nothing.

A/N: The Drabble Plot Bunny is responsible for this one R/R please!

**Happiness**

Rose's watch alarm beeped from under her layers of clothing: five o'clock. She regretted having to rely on the alarm but she had needed the layers. A day out with a dog-sled team was always going to be cold. But -15 degrees just a little too cold. And it was getting colder too, as the sun faded out of view, behind the mountains. Luckily, the Doctor already knew the commands, so all she'd been required to do was sit on the sled and do nothing.

_The scenery more than makes up for that though _she thought to herself.

Indeed, the recent snow had turned the pine trees frost white, a sea of silver-green stretching out, back towards the mountain ridges beyond.

oOo

"Time to go home, eh, Rose?" The Doctor appeared at her side, breaking into her reverie.

"Wha…?" Replied Rose, quietly. She shivered slightly as a breeze wafted through the clearing.

"Rose, come here you're freezing!" The Doctor pulled a face as he saw her exposed face. He rearranged his scarf and wrapped Rose's neck with the resulting six foot extra. "Come on!"

They walked hand in hand back to where they'd parked the TARDIS.

"Doctor?"

"Yes..?"

"Why are we wearing a…" She checked the length "a fifteen foot long scarf?"

"Because we can. And because I haven't worn this in years. It was a favourite of mine when Sarah-Jane travelled with me, and Romana, and who could forget young Adric…"

"Okay, fair do's!" Smiled Rose inside a fold of scarf.

Together, they opened the TARDIS doors, hand over trembling hand, and quickly went inside.

oOo

"Now where?" asked the Doctor as he hung up the scarf and set about warming Rose's hands in his own. "Somewhere warmer?"

"Can we stay a little longer?" Rose asked "Could we watch the sunrise?"

"Fine by me. Tea?"

"Please!"

The Doctor went off to fetch some cups and the teapot.

oOo

Rose tried walking on her rapidly thawing feet. How could she have let them get so cold?

Tripping on a piece of coral, she fell face first towards the console. Instinctively she put out her hand to break her fall, and to her surprise hit a small button tucked away under the rim of the central column.

oOo

Several things then happened simultaneously. The Doctor returned just in time to see her impact with the console, she let out a high-pitched noise somewhere between a gasp and a scream, and the console jumped about a foot to the left. The walls receded and became filled with drawers and cupboards, curios and shelves and several dumpy armchairs sprang up in one corner. The steps down to the door became a flight of stairs up and the console turned to wood and metal. Most amazingly, however, was the change wreaked on the ceiling. In an instant the domed coral became clear glass. A perfect planetarium of the sky outside.

oOo

"What happened?" Rose picked herself up off the suddenly carpeted floor. "What happened to the TARDIS?"

"Rose," the Doctor laughed "you've just succeeded in changing the desktop theme!"

"Desktop Theme?" Rose was incredulous.

"Yep!" The Doctor set the tray of tea he had been carrying on a small table. "This one's called 'Gothic'. I prefer 'Coral' though"

"Yes, I know…"

Rose helped herself to tea and a chocolate biscuit. The Doctor took a cup for himself and plonked himself down in one of the squashy armchairs.

"Is this why you invented the sonic screwdriver?" asked Rose, sitting down cross-legged on one of the thick fluffy rugs and eyeing a set of shelves with amusement.

"Not really. But it did prompt me to upgrade it." He twirled the sonic screwdriver through his long fingers. "But speaking of upgrades…"

He opened a drawer and rummaged around.

"Frequent flyer's privileges. Number one is the Universal Roaming. Number two is a personal TARDIS key. Number three…Aha!"

He pulled out a thin velvet pouch about six inches long, and tossed it to her.

She opened it carefully to reveal a slender silver handle.

"Number three…your own sonic screwdriver" grinned the Doctor as Rose finished unwrapping it. He pointed out a circle of text. "Complete with Gallifreyan nametag. Although… the nearest match to 'Rose' is 'Freyarnarosalamundar'…"

"WHAT!"

"…which translates to 'beautiful Gallifreyan flower that grows on a distant world' so don't bite my head off! I think it suits you."

Rose sipped her tea in silence.

"So what's number four?"

"Dunno, no-one's ever been past number two before!" The Doctor drained his cup and poured another. "I really couldn't say!"

He moved to sit beside Rose, and then lay down and gazed at the stars though the glass ceiling above. She lay down too, nestling against his shoulder.

"Thank you" she whispered in his ear.

"My pleasure!" the Doctor grinned, turning his head slightly.

oOo

For the next few minutes, the Doctor pointed out constellations and planets. Earth was here by the drawers… Raxacoricofallapatorius and Clom were over by the door… Ursa Major…

Rose listened attentively, but soon her eyelids began to droop. She shifted a little and was soon fast asleep. It had been a long day after all.

When the Doctor looked around and saw her, sound asleep with a contented smile on her face, he sighed happily. Carefully and gently he lifted her in his arms, watching her breathing steadily. He carried her slowly to her room and laid her on the bed, covering her with the duvet after removing her socks, which were still damp where the snow had gone over the tops of her boots earlier.

She turned over, and back onto her back. He kissed her lightly on the cheek, turned and walked to the door.

"Goodnight, Rose" he whispered to the head that poked out from beneath the covers. He took a last look at her before pulling the door closed and clearing off to his own bed.

"Goodnight… Doctor…" An ethereal voice echoed through Rose's room.

"Goodnight!"

--

Damn you drabble plot bunny! Oh my… Sorry folks I think the angst and the drabble plot bunnies are teaming up against me… Aargh!! Your reviews help me write, so review, review, review!!


	3. Memories

"And the brave prince took her away to a quiet planet where they lived happily ever after

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I profit nothing.

A/N: The result of the double Plot Bunny attack… R/R please!

**Memories**

"And the brave prince took her away to a quiet planet where they lived happily ever after."

The Doctor sat back in the armchair as the last few notes of the music box echoed away into the warm air of his daughter's room. From the tender age of four she had point-blank refused to go to bed without a story at bedtime and he had happily obliged.

In truth, he'd surprised himself, night after night as he read and recounted stories of witches, princesses and fairies to his little girl, his Romana. They had exhausted every single Sol-3/Earth origin myth and legend in their first year of 'story time' alone. Now five and a half years old, thanks to the TARDIS, he could read her stories from any planet in the universe in its original language.

As the last note died, the ambient lighting dimmed until only the faintest glimmer remained to light his way.

The Doctor knelt next to the bed and lighted kissed his dark-haired daughter on the cheek before moving quietly across the deep carpet and pulling the heavy curtain slowly along the rail to cover the doorway as he left.

He made his way across the hall to the other room, where Rose was listening to their son chattering on about everything and nothing.

"Right then, young man" the Doctor sat at the end of the bed and addressed the sandy-haired ten-year-old. "What have we discovered today?"

"The library is categorised by genre, temporal placement and author's surname. And there are always a pile at least thirty books high on the desk because you never put them back!"

"Cheeky". The Doctor swiped jokingly at his son, grinning widely.

"Time to go to sleep now, Mickey" said Rose, who interrupted them by yawning loudly

"I agree…" the Doctor accepted a hug and waited at the door for Rose to finish tucking Mickey in. He absentmindedly read the new notice on the door.

**Michael 'Mickey' Adric (Smith)**

Michael – "he who is like God" – Mickey - Mum's friend from Earth Picture

Adric – Alzarian name - Dad's friend from a long time ago.

_Knock first; you don't know what I'll do…_

He laughed quietly at this last point; Mickey usually did do something random when people entered unannounced. Although how he found out about Adric was something he'd have to take up with the TARDIS later.

oOo

Rose had joined him.

"Say goodnight…" she prompted.

"Sleep soundly and wake in good time" the Doctor intoned softly, the words springing to his lips. Then he closed the door and faced his love.

"So then, Theta" Rose using his old nickname, "we have two hours before I want to be in bed."

Somewhere deep in the TARDIS, a clock chimed.

"What's it to be then?" smiled the Doctor "A film? Television? Or do you want a bedtime story too?"

"If you'll let me, I'd like to find out what life was like before I met you underneath Henriks."

"It's not all sweetness and light, are you sure?"

"That's why I need to know"

oOo

The Doctor led the way through the domestic levels to a little used room with blue and silver drapes and a floor that appeared to entirely consist of cushions. He sat himself down cross-legged against a wall and Rose sat down in front and laid her head on the Doctor's ankles, cushioning them with a pillow.

"Any open door?"

The Doctor smiled, and gently put his fingertips against her temples, and lowered his mental barriers.

oOo

Rose was in a circular room with eleven doors around her. One was unmarked, and locked, but the others were numbered and slightly ajar.

"Start with number one" the Doctor's voice echoed in the stillness.

"Thanks"

Boldly she stepped towards the first door and stepped inside.

_An old man, white-haired and tottering, collapsing onto the floor of the console room next to his companions, close to exhaustion._

_Through the second door, a shorter man with dark hair, playing what seemed to be a recorder._

_The third door, another old man, flooring three guards in army uniform with some very smooth martial arts._

"You really need to teach me some of those moves" Rose said as she re-entered the round room.

"Another day perhaps" said the Doctor as Rose left through the fourth door.

_The Doctor again, crazy-eyed and grinning (where have I seen that before, thought Rose) wearing that scarf, accompanied by a tall woman in a white gown._

"The original Romana"_ said the disembodied voice of the Doctor in her ear._

_Next, a younger, blonde regeneration (Blonde!) in cricket whites, watching helplessly as his young, brown-haired friend was left behind and blown apart by a bomb on some god-forsaken freight ship. So impossibly far away from home._

"Adric"_ whispered the voice as if on the brink of tears._

_A flash of blonde frizz (Blonde again!) and colourful jacket as the Doctor was put on trial at the Citadel of Gallifrey, falsely accused, as a scapegoat for the misconduct of those in power._

_Another short man, with a straw hat and umbrella, trying to stop his friend from blowing something up._

_A moment of amnesia and a jubilant cry; 'I Am the Doctor!' Brown hair and a happy smile as he celebrated the turn of the millennium._

oOo

_The memory of a blood-streaked face. He wields a large, evil-looking blaster, defending a small, unimportant planet against the millions of Daleks overhead._

oOo

_A fatal choice. Either way would mean the loss of absolutely everything. A small blue button. Pressed. Empty space inside as the TARDIS flew on alone. The last of the Timelords. The end of an eon. Regeneration, painful and long. Steel blue eyes and improbably large ears. _

'_Run!'_

oOo

Rose returned to the circular room, her curiosity peaking at the sight of the locked door.

"Why is this door locked?"

"Didn't know how far you wanted to see…" mumbled the voice.

"You saw me when I was only months old, but I know nothing of your life before you started travelling, other than those you told me in Prague all those years ago."

"Your choice." A throb began in the background "Sorry, headache. Be quick"

The unmarked door unlocked itself and Rose walked determinedly through.

oOo

_She was in a corridor almost completely filled with doors, except for the spiral staircases at both ends and the two miniature mailboxes set into the wall outside each door. She read the name on the nearest._

"Maxilian?"

"Became Commander of the Citadel guards"_ said the voice of the Doctor. _

"And Drax…?"

"His closest friend and ally until Drax went AWOL"

_She looked at the names on the other side of the corridor._

"Theta and Koschei!"

"Go inside."

oOo

_As she'd half expected, the dorms were spacious and dimensionally transcendental like the TARDIS._

_The first room was a kitchen and living room, with two doors on opposite walls._

"Left-hand side"

_The Doctor's bedroom was so cluttered that the carpet was barely visible. Clockwork robots and open books littered the floor. An entire wall was covered with posters with posters of Black hole mechanics and lectures on temporal disturbances. Another was a giant whiteboard which itself was covered with frantic calculations in his distinctive scrawl._

"This isn't so bad…"_ Rose remarked. But she instantly regretted it._

oOo

_The memory of looking into the un-tempered schism of the vortex, at the tender age of seven. The sheer terror not her own, but his, and its echoes throughout the years that followed, the nightmares and the screaming of the raw power that longed to be free._

_Shouts of "Loser", "Halfie" and "Human": clamours of derision and contempt in the voices of children._

"I'm half human, Rose" _said the Doctor by way of explanation, his thought voiced in a whisper. _"My link with Earth, my past and my future, or part of it at least."

_A blur. A female voice ringing out, shrill and clear._

"_You are monsters. Why can you not just leave us alone? He's just a child!"_

_A painful, sorrowful thought. That was his mother, and he couldn't even remember what she looked like._

_The Academy clock booming. The golden light of the vortex. Flashes of the future in the memories of the past. The Last Great Time War. Living it again in seconds, centuries before the event. Explosions and the inevitable button…_

_Rose gasped. Staring at her, the future-memory within the memory, was herself._

oOo

Rose was crying when she forced herself back into reality. Sitting up slowly, she turned around onto her knees and enveloped the Doctor in the tightest, most desperate hug he had ever come across. Her tears flowed quick and hot down her cheeks as she buried herself in the Doctor's shoulder.

"I love you…" she whispered, hoarsely.

"And I love you too, Rose, never forget that. You are the other reason I stuck with Earth."

"Should never…have let…you show…" Rose hiccoughed through her hair. "You knew…about the War…what you had to do…Arcadia…Everything…"

The Doctor was crying too now, his silent tears falling slowly down his face.

"I did what I had to do."

"But…"

"Sssh…Like you said to me all those years ago, in Prague, you're here with me now. And to me, you are what matters now."

"Daddy, why are you crying?" a small voice asked from near the door. Rose released the Doctor to see who it was and sat next to him against the wall. Romana had heard them and come to investigate, with Mickey in tow. "Mummy, are you crying too?"

"Sorry" mumbled Mickey as he closed the door behind him.

The Doctor gestured for them to come over. Romana cuddled up to her father's free side and Mickey sat down beside his mother.

"It's too long a story for now, but perhaps another day." Rose said softly, her tears drying.

Mickey gave her a hug.

"Tomorrow?" Romana asked, sleepily.

"Tomorrow." The Doctor agreed.

They moved into the middle of the room, too exhausted to walk up the stairs to their own beds. They all lay back in the cushions and before long they were sound asleep.

oOo

A lullaby played deep inside the TARDIS, unknown to all but the machine herself. But in accompaniment, her voice drifted through the corridors:

And time flows forward, always on,

But under the Bad Wolf's fiery gaze,

Although my planet may be gone

I shall be here 'til the end of days

--

Voila! Finished. Review please. That little lavender box…


End file.
